Outsourcing: How vital is it to small businesses looking to compete globally?

Outsourcing: How vital is it to small businesses looking to compete globally?

When it comes to competition either across the world or via the internet marketplace, can smaller companies afford to compete globally with larger corporations without outsourcing important business functions such as IT? What are your thoughts in regards to the three questions, posed to address, this issue referenced on CFO.com?
While outsourcing can be a growth vitamin, small to-midsize companies must ask three questions before taking the plunge.

Global competitors, the Internet marketplace, and higher customer expectations have raised the bar for small to-midsize businesses (SMBs). The products and services delivered by smaller companies have to meet or exceed not just their comparably-sized peers, but also those of larger corporations with vastly greater resources. In many areas, these smaller companies simply cannot hope to compete using a do-it-yourself approach.

Instead of focusing on the cost advantages associated with moving jobs overseas, smaller businesses are using outsourcing to punch above their weight in critical business functions, including IT, transportation and logistics, and procurement. For smaller businesses, there are three questions that need to be answered when defining targets of opportunity for outsourcing…